Tackling modern day slavery

At Lidl UK, we operate with a fundamental respect for the rights of the people we interact with, whether they be our own direct employees, contract workers or people employed throughout our supply chains.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that at least 21 million people worldwide are victims of forced labour. It is regarded as the fastest growing criminal industry and has been identified across multiple private sector economies, from construction and manufacturing to agriculture and fishing. Victims of slavery are often hidden within complex supply chains, controlled and threatened by criminal perpetrators, making their plight challenging to both identify and effectively remediate.

We welcome the UK government’s Modern Slavery Act and the duty it places on businesses to publicly disclose the steps they are taking to tackle forced labour and human trafficking. We believe modern slavery is most effectively tackled as part of a wider human rights business strategy.

We are taking a range of actions to ensure that we are effectively tackling modern day slavery. An overview of the actions we are taking can be found in our modern day slavery statement.

Stronger Together

Due to the wide-scale, undercover nature of modern slavery we recognise that a collaborative approach is essential to effectively eradicating the issue. In 2016, we joined Stronger Together, a multi-stakeholder initiative dedicated to tackling modern slavery across both UK and global supply chains. Stronger Together provides access to best practice resources and toolkits, specialist training workshops and the opportunity for us to collaborate with the industry on high risk areas and policy positions. All of our first tier suppliers are attending Stronger Together training to ensure they are supported to spot the signs of modern slavery in their supply chains.

Backing the Evening Standard’s battle against modern slavery

In November 2017 we supported our commitment to combating modern slavery and human trafficking by backing the Evening Standard's battle against modern slavery. The pledge emphasises the importance of the role of businesses in eradicating slavery from supply chains.